Hubert H. Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (May 27, 1911–January 13, 1978) was the 38th Vice President of the United States, and twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota.
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Humphrey was born in Wallace, South Dakota (Codington County). He attended the public schools of Doland, S.Dak, where his family had moved. After public school, he graduated from Capitol College of Pharmacy, Denver in 1933. He then became a pharmacist with the Humphrey Drug Co. in Huron, South Dakota, from 1933 to 1937.
Humphrey then returned to school, receiving a degree from the University of Minnesota in 1939. He also earned a graduate degree from Louisiana State University in 1940, serving as an assistant instructor of political science there. He then became an instructor at the University of Minnesota between 1940–1941.
During World War II, he became state director of war production training and reemployment and State chief of Minnesota war service program 1942; assistant director, War Manpower Commission 1943; professor in political science at Macalester (Minn.) College 1943–1944; radio news commentator 1944–1945.
In 1944, Humphrey was the catalyst for the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties of Minnesota to form the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).
After the war, he ran for and became mayor of Minneapolis 1945–1948. Humphrey gained national fame during these years by co-founding the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), reforming the Minneapolis police force, and defeating the efforts of the local Communist Party to control the DFL.
With the help of friends in the ADA, Humphrey introduced a controversial liberal civil rights plank to the 1948 Democratic National Convention, and, in one of the most renowned speeches in American political history, persuaded the Convention to adopt it into the party platform. (As a result of the Convention accepting this plank, several Southern state delegations left the Convention and formed the Dixiecrat party.)
Minnesota elected Humphrey to the United States Senate in 1948 on the DFL ticket, and he took office on January 3, 1949. He was reelected in 1954 and 1960. His colleagues selected him as majority whip in 1961, a position he held until he left the Senate on December 29, 1964.
In the Senate, Humphrey became known for his advocacy of liberal causes (such as civil rights, arms control, a nuclear test ban, food stamps, and humanitarian foreign aid), and for his long and witty speeches. He was chairman on the Select Committee on Disarmament (Eighty-fourth and Eighty-fifth Congresses).
Humphrey ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, but lost to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy.
He was elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and served from January 20, 1965, until January 20, 1969. As Vice President, Humphrey was controversial for his complete and vocal loyalty to Johnson and the policies of the Johnson Administration, even as many of Humphrey's liberal admirers opposed Johnson with increasing fervor about the Vietnam War.
In 1968, Humphrey ran for President of the United States winning the United States Democratic Party nomination at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, but lost the 1968 election to Richard M. Nixon.
While he was Vice President, Hubert Humphrey was the subject of a satirical song by songwriter/musician Tom Lehrer entitled "Whatever Became of Hubert?" ("I wonder how many people here tonight remember Hubert Humphrey. He used to be a senator..."). The song was addressing how some liberals and progressives felt let down by how Humphrey had gone from being a leading light of liberalism to a more moderate, establishment figure as Johnson's VP.
He then resumed teaching at Macalester College and the University of Minnesota 1969–1970; chairman, board of consultants, EncyclopÃÂædia Britannica Educational Corp.; elected in 1970 to the United States Senate; reelected in 1976 and served from January 3, 1971, until his death in office; the post of Deputy President pro tempore of the Senate was created for him and he held it from January 5, 1977, until his death in Waverly, Minnesota, January 13, 1978; chairman, Joint Economic Committee (Ninety-fourth Congress); unprecedented sessions of the House and Senate were held in his honor in October 1977, when he was gravely ill; lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol; interment in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
| Preceded by: Joseph H. Ball | Senate Class 2 Minnesota Congressional Delegations Senate Class 1 | Succeeded by: Walter Mondale |
| Preceded by: Eugene McCarthy | Succeeded by: Muriel Humphrey |
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Buildings Named for Humphrey
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Preceded by:
Lyndon JohnsonVice Presidents of the United States
Succeeded by:
Spiro Agnew